Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Monday claimed the party was not responsible for the political stalemate in Maharashtra, NDTV reported. Raut issued the statement after meeting Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. “Whoever has the majority will form the government,” he told reporters.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, an ally of the Shiv Sena, won 105 seats in the 288-member Assembly in the October 21 elections. The Shiv Sena won 56 seats, the Nationalist Congress Party 54 constituencies and the Congress 44 seats. The majority mark is 145.

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On Monday, Raut said he cannot advise the governor, and said Koshyari would take his own decision. “We kept our talk forward, he heard us,” the Shiv Sena leader told reporters. “We just wanted to tell him that the government is not being formed, and for ensuing confusion, we are not responsible.”

The meeting came on a day when Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met BJP president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and asserted that a government would be formed soon. Nationalist Congress chief Sharad Pawar also met Interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

Pawar had said on Friday that the Nationalist Congress Party will think of an alternative formation if talks between the BJP and Shiv Sena fail.

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The political situation in Maharashtra is in deadlock because the Shiv Sena wants the chief minister’s post for half of the five-year tenure and an equal division of Cabinet portfolios. The BJP wants Fadnavis to continue as chief minister for the full five-year term. Last week, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray cancelled a meeting with the BJP after Fadnavis denied that his party had agreed to an equal power-sharing agreement before the Lok Sabha polls.

The two parties now have only five days to reach a solution as the legislative Assembly’s tenure expires on November 9.

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